Document Transformation Between Program Formats and Templates System and Method

ABSTRACT

A system and method are presented for interoperability of computer software applications. Subdocuments are located within slots of a main document along with a fully-qualified file identifier. Subdocuments can be saved in the main document in an intermediate format. Editing a slot triggers the opening of the original document in its native application. An intermediate format file is then created and reimported into its original slot. A document containing subdocuments can be exported in its entirety from one program to another. An auxiliary program identifies a target template format and converts the original document to the target template in its native application using the original subdocuments. Page image exports are used to transfer all content in the original application document to a destination document in a different format.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 17/733,904, filed Apr. 29, 2022, which was a divisionalapplication of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/148,869, which wasfiled on Jan. 14, 2021 (the '869 application). The '869 application wasa continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/793,594,filed on Feb. 18, 2020, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,307,732 on Apr.19, 2022 (the '594 application). The '594 application claimed thebenefit of U.S. provisional patent application 62/807,105, filed on Feb.28, 2019. All of these applications are hereby incorporated by referencein their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present application relates to the field of interoperability betweencomputer software applications. More specifically, the applicationrelates to the utilization of embedded sub-documents within slots thatare defined in a main document, and the cross-exportation and liveediting of subdocuments between applications having different fileformats.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is configured to operate on a computer system inwhich two applications utilize different file formats. Each applicationis able to create files in their own format. These files contain slotsinto which the content of subfiles (or “subdocuments”) have beenembedded. In one embodiment, the same intermediate file format is usedby both programs. This intermediate file format can be handled by eitherprogram, but only in a simplified manner. The content contained withinthe slots can be formatted in this intermediate file format, which isthen stored within slots in association with a file name that identifieswhere the full subfile (or “subdocument file”) is stored in a filesystem. The full (original) subfile is stored in the native format ofone of the two programs.

Templates are utilized to create native format documents in one of theprograms that establish the locations of slots within the document.Templates generally define the number, orientation, and relative size ofthe slots on each page or slide. The slots themselves can include titleand count fields.

Auxiliary programming operates alongside the two programs in order tohandle templates, document creation, the identification of subdocuments,and the creation, insertion, and automatic deletion of temporaryintermediate file formats that are derived from the originally formattedsubdocument files. Auxiliary programming can be created usingapplication programming interfaces (APIs) provided by the main programs.

In one embodiment, the two programs are created by the same softwaredeveloper. An example of this type of embodiment is a system thatoperates on Visio, a vector graphics processing program from Microsoft,Inc. (Redmond, Wash.), and PowerPoint, a slide-based presentationprogram also from Microsoft. While Visio and PowerPoint are bothgraphics based programs, they use separate file formats that are notinterchangeable. One embodiment that operates on Visio and PowerPointuses Enhanced MetaFiles (or EMFs) as the intermediate file format. Whileboth Visio and PowerPoint can import and export EMF formatted documents,the EMF format is an image file format that does not provide support formany of the specific features that are support by the Visio or thePowerPoint file formats.

A document having multiple subdocuments can be exported in its entiretyfrom one program (the source program) to the other program (the targetprogram). To accomplish this, the auxiliary program must identify atarget template format that will define the overall look of the documentcreated in the target software program. The target template format mayhave a different layout or structure than the template used to formatthe document in the source program. A new document using the targettemplate format is created in the source program, with slots in this newdocument being filled by reexamining the source subdocument files. Theauxiliary programming then exports the pages/slides of the new documentin their entirety into stripped-down intermediate format documents.These intermediate format documents are formatted according to thetarget template, and there can be imported directly into the destinationprogram.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system utilizing the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between atemplate and a main document.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the interaction between the twomain programs, the auxiliary program, the subdocument files, and themain document.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a method for creating a main document.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a method for adding a sub file into aslot.

FIG. 6 is a method for resizing an inserted subdocument.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing interactions between systemcomponents when editing a subdocument.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing a method of editing a subdocument.

FIG. 9 schematic diagram of another embodiment showing interactionsbetween system components when editing a subdocument.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a document transform betweendifferent application programs.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing a method for document transform.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing a method for creating a transformtemplate document.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing a method for exporting a page from thetransform template document during a document transform.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION System 10

FIG. 1 shows a system 10 in which a document 100 is created in a firstprogram 20. The system 10 operates on one or more computer systems.These computer systems operate through the use of a central processor(or CPU) under the direction of programming. The programming isgenerally stored in static, nonvolatile storage or memory, such as asolid state drive (or SSD). Programming used by the central processor isgenerally retrieved from the nonvolatile storage and placed into faster,yet volatile random access memory (or RAM). Programming is sometimeprovided by third party software vendors in the form of commercialsoftware programs. Because programs frequently work together, and can besupplemented by custom programming, it is sometimes difficult toseparate one program from another. In the present context, separateprogramming generally is capable of operating independently for aparticular purpose, but nonetheless is able to share data andcommunicate instructions with other programming. Data is also stored onthe nonvolatile memory and then moved into RAM during processing. Datais frequently stored as files in a file system, such as file system 120.Documents are files that are created, edited, and stored by programming.Documents are typically stored in document formats that have beencreated by the programming that saved that document onto nonvolatilestorage. Documents created by one program may not be fully useable oreven readable by other programs.

In FIG. 1 , the first program 20 is labeled Program-V. In the priorityapplications, portions of system 10 were described explicitly with thefirst program being Microsoft Visio, and the second program beingMicrosoft PowerPoint. The present invention is generally applicable tomany combinations of different programs, but in keeping with some ofthat original description, first program 20 is labeled, and sometimesreferred to herein as program V. Similarly, the second program 30 shownin FIG. 1 is labeled program P, although it is not to be limited toMicrosoft PowerPoint.

The document 100 is created using a format identified by a separatetemplate 110. In FIG. 1 , the template 110 is shown as having fourlocations which can be referred to as “tiles,” “slots,” or “containers.”The priority document frequently used the word tile, while the presentapplication more frequently uses the term slot. In Visio, a slot cantake the form of multiple shapes grouped into a container. The fourslots in the template 110 are shown in a 2×2 grid format, with each slotin a generally landscape orientation. Other templates may have adifferent grid pattern of slots, such as a 2×1 grid, a 3×2 grid, a 4×2grid, etc. Even a single slot per page can be considered a 1×1 gridpattern.

Since document 100 is created according to template 110, document 100 isalso shown as having a 2×2 grid of slots 140, with each slot 140 also ina landscape orientation. The document 100 can be composed or one or morepages or slides, such as page 130. In the present disclosure, documentssuch as document 100 that are created by program V 20 will be consideredto have pages while documents created by program P 30 will be consideredto have slides. This language is, once again, simply utilized for easein understanding, as both programs 20, 30 could organize their documentsinto pages or into slides (or into any other sub-documentation schema)without altering the scope of the present invention.

Once document 100 is created according to the template 110, a singlepage 130 is established using the arrangement of slots specified by thetemplate 110. Utilizing the interfaces and procedures described in thepriority application, a user interface is created in program V to allowthe user to work with the template 110 to create the document. This userinterface is created by auxiliary programming 40. Auxiliary programming40 is designed to operate within and through each of the separateprograms 20 and 30. Furthermore, the auxiliary programming 40 is able tooperate independently from either program 20, 30. Thus, the auxiliaryprogramming 40 can use the APIs of either program to request operations,perform functions, and manage and control documents. The auxiliaryprogramming 40 can also operate on its own to manipulate documents,present user interfaces, and pass data and control signals between theprograms 20, 30. In one embodiment, separate auxiliary programs operatein connection with each program 20, 30, but work with one another toprovide the functions described herein.

The slots 140 in document 100 are designed to be filled withsubdocuments (subfiles) found elsewhere in the system 10, such assubdocuments 122 that are stored outside the applications 20, 30. InFIG. 1 , the subdocuments 122 are stored on, and are accessible to theprograms 20, 30 through, a file system 120. In one embodiment, eachsubdocument 122 is stored in the native format of either the firstprogram 20 or the second program 30. In FIG. 1 , five subdocuments 122are shown, each with a separate filename maintained by the file system120. All five of these subdocuments 122 shown in FIG. 1 are stored inthe native file format of program V 20. In some cases, the auxiliaryprogram 40 provides access to a sub-portion of the overall file system120 operating on a computer system. That sub-portion is referred togenerally as a library. Thus, in FIG. 1 and elsewhere in this document,the file system 120 containing the files is also referred to as thelibrary 120.

The user interface created by the auxiliary program 40 allows a user toinsert the content of the subdocuments 122 as objects into the slots 140in the document 100. The actual format of these objects as inserted intothe slots 140 can vary between embodiments. One embodiment will bedescribed in more detail below in which the objects embedded into theslots 140 are formatted differently than the files 122 that are storedin the file system 120. In other embodiments, program V 20 managesdocuments such as document 100 and subfiles 122 by maintaining separateobjects within the documents 100, 122, and the embedding of a subfile122 into a slot 140 is accomplished by simply copying the objects foundin the subfile 122 into the slot 140 of the document 100.

FIG. 2 shows document 100 after it has been expanded to a second page230. It can be seen that both the first page 130 and the second page 230share the same number, arrangement, and orientation of slots, as bothpages 130, 230 were defined by the same template 110. FIG. 2 also showsmore details of template 110. As can be seen in that figure, thisfour-slot template 110 actually has a title 212, a slot 214, and a count216 at each location in the 2×2 grid it defines. Each location defineswhere slots 140 will be formed in the documents 100 created by thistemplate, with each slot 140 being capable of being filled by contentfrom the subdocuments 122. The title 212 location allows each of thesesubdocuments to be shown in association with a title that describes thatsubdocument 122. Count 216 allows the document 100 to create a count ofthe number of subdocuments that are contained in the document 100. Theuse of titles, slots, and counts are described in more detail in theincorporated priority documents.

Templates such as template 110 may be created using the user interfacedescribed in the incorporated priority documents. Users can add newelements to the template 110, with the user interface allowing the userto choose the type of element being added (either a drawing or slot 214,a title 212, or a count 216). A title 212, slot 214, and a count 216 canbe grouped together so that this data will be populated together basedon the subdocument 122 that is populating the slot 214.

Inserting Content Into Slots

FIG. 3 shows document 100 open within program V 20. This document 100 isshown with a single page 130. Inside that page 130 are four slots 140,with one of those slots, namely slot 310, being empty. The auxiliaryprogram 40 operating within and in connection with Program V 20 providesa user interface to the user allowing the user to select a particularsubdocument 122 in the file system 120 to add to the empty slot 310. InFIG. 3 , this user interface includes an “Add” button 320. As explainedin the priority documents, the user is allowed to see items in a library120 that are available for insertion into the slots 140 of an opendocument 100. Once an item 122 is selected through this interface, theuser may select to add 320 that document. This is the first major stepin adding content from subdocument 330 into an empty slot 310, and istherefore indicated by the numeral 1 in a circle on FIG. 3 .

In FIG. 3 , the user has selected to add item 7, which is a document 330in the file system 120 associated with FileName-7. This particulardocument 330 is not a native document to Program V, but is instead anative document to Program P. In the context of Microsoft Visio andPowerPoint, for instance, the user may be working with a Visio document100 in the Visio program 20 and select a PowerPoint document 330 to beinserted into the empty slot 310.

The slots 140 in the document 100 are associated with objects,locations, or some other type of document structure in the document 100maintained by program V 20. In most or all cases, it will not bepossible to simply insert an entire file 330 that is formatted accordingto the file structure of a different program 30 into the object ordocument structure that maintains the slot 140 in document 100. As aresult, the auxiliary program 40 must take responsibility for convertingcontent from the selected document 330 into a format that can beinserted into the empty slot 310 in the document 100. In this case, theauxiliary program 40 opens the selected document 330 in its nativeprogram, or program P 30 for document 330. This occurs at numeral 2. Inthe preferred embodiment, the opening and manipulation of the selecteddocument 330 occurs in the background (a hidden window, for instance)and is not visible to the user.

The auxiliary program 40 then causes program P 30 to create anintermediate formatted document 340 (numeral 3). In this case, theintermediate format document 340 is an enhanced metafile (EMF) document.An EMF document 340 is an image format created by Microsoft. While itcan be imported into various programs and exported from those programs,most programs do not easily edit EMF documents while they remain in EMFformat. Nonetheless, it is this EMF document 340 that is inserted intothe empty slot 310 by the auxiliary program 40 (numeral 4 in FIG. 3 ).This is accomplished by storing the EMF document 340 temporarily to thefile system and then inserting the EMF image in that file 340 into theempty slot 310.

The other three slots 140 of document 100 in FIG. 3 are shown ascontaining EMF images for items 1, 2, and 5. As shown in that figure,these items are all associated with files in the file system 120, andall of these files are stored in the native format of program V 20.Nonetheless, these slots are shown as being filled with EMF formattedimages, not the original, native-format documents or objects. While itis possible to store native formatted objects in these slots 140, someembodiments of the present invention store items in slots only in theintermediate (EMF) format. The rationale for this is explained in moredetail below in connection with editing an item within a slot 140.

FIG. 4 shows a method 400 for creating a document 100, while FIG. 5shows a method 500 for inserting data into a slot 140 of the createddocument 100. Method 400 begins with the step 405 of selecting atemplate 110 for use while the user is operating a program, such asprogram V 20. The preferred embodiment always requires the selection ofa template 110 because it is the template that defines the slots 140 ina document. The template 110 is then applied to the current document 100open in the program V 20. This results in the creation of a page 130having slots 140 (with each slot 140 perhaps designed as a three-parttitle 212, slot 214, and count 216, as described above) at step 410. Theuser will then select a file, such as file 330, to add to a slot 140,such as by selecting the add button 320 or by double-clicking on a filename of a file 330 in the user interface created by auxiliary program 40(step 415). The selected file is then added to the slot 140, which isdescribed immediately below in connection with method 500. At step 420,the user is given the option to add more files to the slots of thecreated document 100. If the user desires to do so, the method 400returns to step 415. Otherwise, the method 400 ends at step 425.

Method 500 explains the process for adding the content of a subfile 122(such as file 330) to a slot 140 (such as empty slot 310). In oneembodiment, the user interface always inserts the selected file 330 intothe next available empty slot 310 on the current page 130. Thus, thefirst step 505 of the method 500 determines if there is an empty slot310 available in the current page 130. If not, step 510 will create anew page (such as second page 230) in document 100 according to thepreviously selected template 110.

At step 515, the auxiliary program examines the selected subdocument330, determines the native application for that document 330, and opensthe document 330 in that native application in a hidden window. At step520, the auxiliary program 40 examines the open document 330 and looksfor unprintable shapes. Unprintable shapes are shapes that are not onthe printable page as they are located outside the border of page If anyare found, these are removed. Step 525 removes any locks on any shapesthat are found in the file. Unprintable shapes can cause problems in thecontext of a slot 120 of document 100. In addition, locked shapes can bedifficult or impossible to resize and reposition, as will be necessaryonce the content of the selected document 330 is inserted into the emptyslot 310.

At step 530, the auxiliary application 40 will determine whether thetemplate 110 has defined any titles 212 that must be filled in for theempty slot 310. If not, steps 535 to step 570 can be skipped. If so,step 535 will first examine to see if the filename for the selecteddocument 330 is to be used for the title. The user can elect to usefilenames as titles if they so desire. This election can be made througha preferences interface and then stored in preferences data under thecontrol of the auxiliary program 40. If filenames are to be used, step540 simply assigns the title 212 for the empty slot to the filename ofthe selected file 330. In most cases, the filetype extension will beremoved from the filename before assigning the title 212. The title 212will be displayed adjacent to the content of the selected file 330 whenthe document 100 is being viewed.

If the user has not elected to use the filename as the title, step 545will examine the open document 330 in the native program and attempt toidentify a title. In one embodiment, the open document 330 is examinedfor textual data appearing at the top, or top-center, of the opendocument. If such textual data is not found at step 545, the filenamewill be used as the title in step 540. If a title is found in step 545,step 550 determines whether the user has elected to use the formattingof the title found in the selected document 330 in the title 212 for theempty slot 310. If not (if only the text of the title is to be used),step 555 sets the title 212 to the discovered text. Step 560 thenremoves the title information from the open document 330. This is donebecause the template 110 already provides location for the title 212outside of the container 214 for the slot, so there is no reason for thetitle to appear again in the image found in the slot 214. If the stylefrom the open document 330 is to be maintained, the title portion (only)of the open document 330, including all formatting, is saved separatelyas a temporary EMF slot title file at step 565. This EMF file willcontain not only the text of the title, but also the formatting of thattext as found in the open document. The temporary EMF file is theninserted into the title 212 for the slot 140 at step 570, and thetemporary EMF title file is then deleted. Step 560 will then remove thetitle portion of the subfile to avoid duplicating the title both infield 212 and in the image found in 214. This step essentially creates aredacted version of the subfile as the title information has beenredacted.

At step 575, the auxiliary application 40 determines whether anintermediate file format (such as EMF) will be used to insert thecontent of the selected file 330 into the empty slot 310, or whether thenative format (such as the native objects of a Visio file) will beinserted. An intermediate file format is usually necessary when thedocument 100 into which the content is to be inserted is of a differentfile format than the selected subdocument 330. In the example shown inFIG. 3 , the selected file 330 is native to program P 30, while thedocument 100 is a native document of program V 20. This generalincompatibility will require the use of an intermediate file format. Inother cases, even when the selected subdocument 330 is fully compatiblewith the main document 110, it may, nonetheless, be desirable to use theintermediate file format. If the intermediate file form is desired, step580 will export the content of the selected file 330 (minus unprintableshapes removed in step 520 and any title removed in step 560) into theintermediate format that is being used, such as EMF. This creates atemporary file of the correct intermediate format. At step 585, thisintermediate format content will be inserted into the empty slot 310(more particularly, into the slot object or field 214 of the slot 310).

If step 575 indicates that it is not necessary or desirable to use theintermediate file format, step 590 has the auxiliary program 40 copy theshapes or objects of the open selected file 330 and then step 595 willpaste the shapes into the empty slot 310. This copy and paste operationmay utilize the operating system clipboard, but this is not necessary toperform these functions.

The inserted content in the previously empty slot 310 is then resizedusing method 600 (described below). After resizing, step 596 will ensurethat appropriate metadata about the inserted content is stored inassociation with this slot 310. In particular, the selected file name(FileName-7 for selected file 330) is stored in the metadata for thatslot 310. The filename is preferrable stored as a fully qualified name(file location) so that the original file 330 can be identified withcertainty in the file system 120 and used at a later time. The metadataassociated with the slot 310 is stored in the document 100 in such a waythat it can be ignored by the native program V 20 if it is not operatingin conjunction with the auxiliary program 40. This means that thedocument 100 remains fully compatible with its creating program 20 andcan be opened and edited by any operating instance of the program 20even if the auxiliary program 40 is not operating and cannot read thatmetadata. When the auxiliary program is operating, however, the metadatacan be read, understood, and used in the methods described below. Insome instances, the file format of document 100 stores metadataassociated with objects within the document 100 as name/value pairs, orin other xml data structures. Microsoft PowerPoint, for instance, canstore metadata as “tags.” The method 500 then ends at step 597.

The resizing method 600 is shown in FIG. 6 . In FIG. 5 , the resizingmethod 600 was shown as a single step inside the method 500, and itoccurred after the EMF or copied shapes were added into the slot 310 atsteps 585 or 595. The actual method 600 is somewhat more complicated,and it include steps that may occur on the selected file 330 when it isstill open in its native application. The method 600 begins at step 605by determining the size of the opened subfile 330. The “size” of theselected file 330 is the visual size of the content of the file 330 whenviewed, not the number of bits or bytes stored on in the file system120. This size will depend on the units and other parameters of thenative application that has opened the file 330. For instance, the sizemay be an image size and may be presented in a unit of real-worlddistance, such as inches or centimeters. The size may also be measuredin pixels. Conversions are possible between pixels and real-worlddistance, but such conversion will depend on the resolution (frequentlymeasured in dots per inch or dpi) used by the native application. Thissize of the content in the selected file 330 will frequently need to bereduced so that the content will fit into the dimensions of a slot 140.For instance, a single page wide original content in file 330 may be 7inches wide (at 72 dpi), while the slot 330 in a 2×2 slot formattedtemplate 110 may be only 3 inches wide in a 96 dpi environment. Step 615determines the size that the file content will need to be to fit it intothe empty slot 330. Step 620 determines if fonts appear in the contentof the selected file 330 and, if so, they will need to be resized aspart of the overall resizing method 600. If so, step 625 will calculatein font reduction (or, in some cases enlargement) and then resize thefonts as appropriate. The shapes in the selected file 330 are resized atstep 630. Only at this point (step 635 in the resizing process 600) isthe EMF file created and then imported (steps 580 and 585 in method 500)or are the shapes and fonts cut and pasted (steps 590 and 595). At step640, the content that has be inserted into the previously empty slot 330is examined to ensure that the content fits within that slot 330.Although resizing was done before at step 625 and 630, some additionalalterations of size and translational movement may be necessary at step640. The process 600 is then complete at step 645.

Editing Slot Content

As explained above, the document 100 created by most embodiments of thepresent invention is formatted in a way that it can be opened by itsnative program, such as program V 20, even if the auxiliary programming40 is not present. This means it is possible for a user to use thenative program 20 to edit the content of the document 100 in place. Asexplained in detail in the priority application, one of the primarybenefits of the utilization of slots is to maintain the integrity of theindividual subfiles or items 122 stored in the library 120. In oneembodiment, any one file 122 may have been inserted into the slots 140of numerous documents, such as document 100. In this context, it wouldbe important to have the content of the slots in these numerousdocuments to be effectively the same (with some resizing and titledifferences depending on the template settings of the documents). If anyediting is to be done on the content of a slot 140, it is preferable forthat editing to occur on the original subdocument 122.

The combination of FIG. 7 and the method of editing 800 shown in FIG. 8reveal how the editing of slot contents is performed in one embodimentof the present invention. It is important to note that, in FIG. 7 ,while the content of each slot 140 in document 100 contains the contentof files 122 found in the library 120, this content is stored in theslots 140 in the intermediate file format (such as EMF). As explainedabove, some of the files, including the files for Item 1, Item 2, andItem 5, all share the same native application 20 as the document 100. Asa result, it was possible to simply cut and paste the content of theseitems into the slots 140. If this were done, it would be a simple matterfor a user to directly edit the content of the slots 140 with thecontrols of program 20. By saving the content of these slots 140 intothe intermediate format (in this case, in EMF format), editing thecontent of the slots 140 using the controls of program 20 is now morecomplicated. In most cases, any attempt to edit the slot contents willrequire that the intermediate format be converted into native objectsfor the program 20 to manipulate. In some contexts, for instance, theintermediate format is a simplified image representation of the contentof the underlying files 122 that is not easily editable.

To allow editing of slot content, the method 800 starts by requiring auser to select a single slot 140 in the document 100 at step 805. Onceselected, the user selects the option to edit this slot at step 810,such as by selecting the edit button 720 (shown as numeral 1 on FIG. 7). In FIG. 7 , slot 710 has been selected. This slot 710 contains thecontent of item 5 730 in the library 120. The auxiliary programming 40will next examine the metadata stored in association with this slot 710.This metadata was created when the slot was populated in step 596 asdescribed above. At step 815, the auxiliary programming 40 examines themetadata, determines the file name (and the associated nativeapplication), and then opens the document in that native application instep 820 (numeral 2 in FIG. 7 ). In the example shown in FIG. 7 , thenative application is program V 20, the same program 20 that has createdthe main document 100. Note that while the auxiliary programming 40 isnot explicitly shown in FIG. 7 (or in any later figures), the auxiliaryprogramming 40 is nonetheless operating in these environments.

In one embodiment, the auxiliary programming 40 will add custom controlsand/or stencils 742 to the user interface window 740 of the nativeprogram 20 for the selected file at step 825. These controls andstencils 742 make the job of editing the item file 730 easier, and theycreate custom interfaces for specialty applications and editing. In theincorporated priority documents, the customization for one particularuse case is described in some detail. At step 830 (numeral 3 on FIG. 7), the user edits the selected item file 730 in the user interface 740of the native program 20. The auxiliary program 40 will monitor thisuser interface window 740 during this time. In particular, the auxiliaryprogram 40 will attempt to determine whether or not the editing window740 has been closed by the user. This occurs at step 835. If the userhas not closed the window 740, the editing process 830 will continue.

Once the editing window 740 has closed, the auxiliary program canconclude that the user has finished editing the selected item file 730.At this point, it is assumed that the edited document has been saved bythe user back to the library 120 (numeral 4) using the normal editingwindow 740 of the native application 20. Since the editing is nowcomplete, the auxiliary program at step 840 will retrieve the revisedfile 730 from the library 120 and create a temporary, intermediateformat file 750 containing the revised content of the file 730 (numeral5). This intermediate format file 750 is then imported into the sameslot 710 that contained the older content from this file 730. Thisoccurs at step 845 (numeral 6). Once completed, the temporaryintermediate format file 750 is deleted. The content is then resized,such as by using method 600. The opening of the file, the creation ofthe intermediate format file, the inserting into the slot, and theresizing steps can all occur in the same manner described above inconnection with FIGS. 5 and 6 . At step 850, the method 800 ends.

Note that the above methods have discussed the creation of anintermediate file format file, such as EMF file 750. This file can bestored into nonvolatile memory as a file in the file system 120.However, actually storing the file in the file system is not a necessarycomponent of the present invention. An intermediate format “file” can becreated entirely in the RAM of an operating computer, and the content ofthat file 750 can still be inserted into a slot 710 even if the filesystem never formally creates a file on the nonvolatile storage of thecomputer system. The deletion of such a “file” would also not requirethe intervention of a file system, as the embodiment of the file in RAMcan simply be erased or forgotten without a file system actuallydeleting a stored file.

FIG. 7 showed how the steps of method 800 are applied when the selectedfile 730 is of the same file format as the document 100, and thereforeis opened and edited by the same application that has opened and isediting the document 100. In FIG. 9 , method 800 is shown in the contextwhere item 7 in slot 310 is selected for editing. In this case, theauxiliary program examines the metadata for slot 310 and determines thatitem 7 must be opened in a different program, namely program P 30. Theauxiliary programming 40 does so, and then the same programming canprovide custom controls and stencils 942 that are presented in theediting window 940 in program P 30. The auxiliary programming 40 stillmonitors this window 940 until it is closed. When it is closed, therevised item file 330 is opened again in program P 30, a temporary file950 is created, and this file is resized and inserted into the selectedslot 310 so as to replace the previous version of item 7. The temporaryfile 950 is then deleted.

Document Level Transformation

FIG. 10 shows document 100 described above, native to program V 20 andhaving two pages 130, 230 configured using the 2×2 grid template 110.The first page 130 contains four filled slots, while the second page 230has three of the four slots filled. FIG. 10 shows a transformation 1000of this entire document 100 into a differently formatted document 1010native to a different program, namely program P 30. In this document1010, the items found in the slots 140 of the prog v document 100 haverearranged in the prog-P document 1010. For example, while items 1, 2,7, and 5 were all found in the slots of the first page 130 of the prog-Vdocument, these same items 1, 2, 7, and 5 are now found (one-per-slide)in the first four slides 1012, 1014, 1016, and 1018 of the prog-Pdocument. Similarly, items 8, 15, and 4 on page two 230 of the origindocument are now find in the next three slides 1020, 1022, and 1024.This transformation 1000 changes not only the template configuration(from a 2×2 grid to a “1 up” single slot per slide), but also theoverall size and the proportions of the item content. In order for thistransformation 1000 to be successful, it will therefore be necessary toaccess the original files 122 in the library and reconfigure and resizethe items for their new sizes and proportions in the resulting document1010.

Note that FIG. 10 also shows an alternative transformation 1030 intoprogram-P document 1040 that has a different template configuration. Inthis configuration, each slide shows the content from two differentitems in a 1×2 grid pattern. As a result, the first slide 1042 containsitem 1 and item 2 content, the second slide 1044 contains item 7 anditem 5 content, the third slide 1046 contains item 8 and item 15content, and the fourth slide 1048 contains only content from item 4. Ofcourse, different grid patterns would also be possible for thedestination document.

The overall method 1100 to perform these types of documenttransformations 1000, 1030 is shown in FIG. 11 . The method begins witha determination at step 1105 as to whether the destination document 1010(or alternative document 1040) will utilize a different templateconfiguration than the original document 100. For example, the switchfrom four items per page in document 100 to one item per slide (page) indocument 1010 indicates a template change, as does the switch to two perslide in document 1040. If a template change is required, the transformtemplate method 1200 is performed.

The transform template method 1200 is shown on FIG. 12 . The methodstarts by determining all of the filenames of all items inserted intoslots 140 in the original document 100. This is determined by examining,for each page 130, 230 in the document 100, the metadata for every slot140 to create a list of filenames for the items in the library 120 usedin document 100. These filenames are shown as data 1210 in the flowchartof FIG. 12 . The order of these filenames 1210 is the same order inwhich the subfiles were presented in the original document. Next, atemplate appropriate for the desired destination file 1010, 1040 isselected as the transform template at 1215. In the context of FIG. 10 ,the transform template would be a one slot per page/slide template withthe slots being in a wide, landscape orientation for destinationdocument 1010, and the transform template would be two slots per slide,side-by-side in a 1×2 grid pattern, for destination document 1040. Atstep 1220, a new document is created using that selected transformtemplate. Note that this new document is being created in the source ororiginal program, or program V 20 in the context of FIG. 10 .

Step 1225 selects a first file from the filenames 1215 to be processed.At step 1230, the document created at step 1220 is examined to see if anew page needs to be created, which would be the case if there were nopages (the document is empty) or if all the slots 140 in the currentpage were full. If a new page is needed, it is created at step 1235.Once a page is established that has an open slot, the content of thefile selected at step 1225 is then inserted into that slot. This isaccomplished using the process 500 described above. Step 1225 is thenused to select the next filename from the list of filenames 1210. If allof the files have been inserted, the process ends at step 1240 and thenewly created transform document is returned to method 1100.

This new document created through method 1200, or the original document100 (if step 1105 indicated that the current template for the originaldocument 100 was appropriate), will then be used by method 1100 as thesource document to complete the document transformation. The next step1110 is to determine whether all of the slides/pages of the destinationdocument 1010, 1040 will be saved in a single file, or whether separatefiles should be created for each page. The process is similar in eithercase.

Step 1115 will follow if it is determined that each slide/page willappear in a separate document. Step 1115 ensures that the current (firstpage) of the source document has content (shapes) that needs to beexported. If not, there is no need to transform this page. If so, a newdocument for the destination application (in this case, program P 30) iscreated at step 1120. The entire page is then exported into this newdocument using method 1300.

Method 1300 is shown in FIG. 13 . The method starts by ensuring that thenew document (such as the document created at step 1120) has an activepage or slide. If not, a new page or slide is created in the document atstep 1305. Step 1310 is shown in FIG. 13 assuming that the destinationdocument 1010, 1040 is a presentation application that creates slides,and that these slides are generally presented in a landscape format.Thus, step 1310 asks whether the resulting slides are normal landscapeslides using a 4:3 aspect ratio, or a wide landscape slide with a 16:9ratio. If it is a 4:3 ratio that will be used, step 1315 sets the heightof each slide to 540 pixels and the width to 720 pixels. If a 16:9 ratiois determined, then the height is 540 and the width is 960 pixels. Ifthe destination document were not a native document for a presentationprogram 30, other pixel sizes and page options would be determinedappropriate for the page/slide of the destination document. Regardless,steps similar to those shown as steps 1310-1320 will be used todetermine an appropriate size for the destination page or slide.

Once the destination size is determined, the identified page in thesource document (such as the page identified in step 1100) is exportedfrom the source application to a temporary intermediate format file (theEMF file) file at step 1325. Note that it is the entire page, such aspage 130 or page 230, that is exported into the intermediate formatfile, not merely a single slot 140 from the document. Also note thatthis step of exporting the EMF file 1325 could have occurred earlierthan this location in the overall method 1300, such as before creatingthe slide at step 1305, or it could have occurred later in the method1300, such as immediately before step 1360.

It is necessary to determine how to resize the entire page of thisintermediate format file into the destination size identified at steps1315 or 1320. To do this, we first examine the page units (such asinches or centimeters) of the exported source document content in EMF(the intermediate format) format in step 1330, and then convert theheight and width of that content specified in these page units into aheight and width in pixels. If the source document is native to aMicrosoft application such as Visio, the ConvertResult function providedby the API can be used to perform this conversion.

We now have both the height and width (in pixels) of the exported EMFcontent (from step 1325) and the height and width of the destinationpage/slide (from steps 1315 or 1320). Step 1340 then calculates theratio between the slide and the exported EMF content for both the heightand the width. The height ratio is the height of the slide divided bythe height of the exported EMF content, while the width ratio is thewidth of the slide divided by the width of the exported EMF content.These two ratios are then compared to determine which is the largest instep 1345. The larger ratio will be used to create the new size andposition for the EMF content when it is imported into the slide. If theheight ratio is largest, step 1350 will set the height and width for theEMF content to be the page height and width times the height ratio. Ifthe width ratio is largest, step 1355 will set the height and width forthe EMF content to be the page height and width times the width ratio.In either case (step 1350 or 1355), the left margin will be the slidewidth minus the calculated width divided by two and the top margin willbe the slide height minus the calculated height divided by two. Thesecalculations will ensure that the exported EMF page content will becentered and resized to the maximum possible size in the destinationslide.

The exported intermediate format content (the EMF content) from step1325 is then imported as the entire slide (as an EMF image) at step1360. Note that the EMF file is treated as a single image, and thisimported image will be resized and positioned so that it has the height,width, and position identified in steps 1350 or 1355. This image willhave the template configuration of items as desired in the destinationdocument 1010, 1040, because this template was utilized to create theEMF file through method 1200. This new image may need to be altered evenafter import to make sure that the imported image is of the appropriatesize and properly centered. While steps 1310-1355 attempted to perfectthe import through these import calculations, some issues can only beaddressed after importation into the destination application 30. Onceimported into the destination file, the destination application 30 underthe control of the auxiliary application 40 can detect mis-centering andslight miscalculations in size and fix these minor issues.

Once imported, the temporary file that was created for the imageexported is deleted at step 1365, and method 1300 ends at step 1370.Note that the content that is imported contains all of the items to befound on a single slide. In the context of the alternative destinationdocument 1040, Item 1 and Item 2 are combined into a single image andare inserted as a EMF picture into slide 1 1082. There are no “slots”that contain data linked to the files 122 in the destination documents1010, 1040. In effect, the intricacies of maintaining slots and metadatalinks to the original files 122 in the library 120 are abandoned duringa document transformation under methods 1100-1300. This serves multiplepurposes, but the most important is to increase the speed of thedocument transformation and to reduce the complexity and file size ofthe destination documents 1010, 1040.

Returning to FIG. 11 , once the page has been exported through method1300 into the newly created document from step 1120, the reviseddocument is saved and closed at step 1125. Step 1130 then determines ifother pages need to be created. If so, the process returns to step 1115.If not, the process ends at step 1135.

If step 1100 indicated that the destination document is to save all thecreated pages/slides into a single document, then step 1140 will createthat document. Step 1145 will then examine the first page in the sourcedocument. If there is content (shapes) on that page, then method 1300 iscalled to export that page to the destination document 1010, 1040. Step1150 then determines if other pages need to be examined and exported inthe source document. If so, the process returns to step 1145. Note thatstep 1305 is responsible for creating multiple slides (pages) in thisdocument as needed. If no other pages are discovered at step 1150, thestep 1155 will save and close the multi-page/slide destination document1010, 1040, and the process 1100 will end at step 1135.

The many features and advantages of the invention are apparent from theabove description. Numerous modifications and variations will readilyoccur to those skilled in the art. Since such modifications arepossible, the invention is not to be limited to the exact constructionand operation illustrated and described. Rather, the present inventionshould be limited only by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: a) displaying a sourcedocument in containing a plurality of slots, where at least one slot: i)is associated with a single subfile, ii) contains source subfile contentfrom the single subfile in an intermediate file format, and iii) hasmetadata identifying a file location for the single subfile; b)receiving a request to edit a selected slot associated with a selectedsubfile; c) identifying the file location in the metadata for theselected subfile; d) opening the selected subfile found at the filelocation; e) allowing a user to edit the selected subfile; f) upon acompleting on editing by the user, creating edited subfile content inthe intermediate file format; g) inserting the edited subfile contentinto the selected slot.